PRO FOOTBALL; Jets' Poised Rookie Linebacker Takes Command on Defense

By RICHARD LEZIN JONES

Published: January 2, 2005

The public-address announcer repeated his name so many times that it had almost begun to resemble a chant. ''Tackle by Jonathan Vilma'' would echo through Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park, N.Y., where the Jets faced the Bills on Nov. 7.

''Vilma with the tackle.'' ''Vilma.''

The Bills ran four plays on their opening possession that day. And at the end of each one, Vilma, the Jets' poised first-round pick, was in on the tackle.

By the end of the game, a 22-17 Jets loss, Vilma had recorded a season-high 14 tackles and added another set of highlights to a remarkable rookie season in which he has hardly seemed like a first-year player. The 22-year-old Vilma is the chief signal caller on the Jets' defense and has already emerged as a leader to whom more veteran players look to for on-field guidance.

''It was a while back in one of the games, the guys were looking at me for corrections, they were looking at me for answers,'' Vilma recalled last week. ''I said, 'I'm not just a rookie now, I can speak my voice, I can have my say.'''

Today, Vilma will lead the Jets' defense into the Edward Jones Dome to face the Rams in St. Louis, where the team's American Football Conference playoff hopes are on the line. With a victory, the Jets (10-5) can clinch a spot as an A.F.C. wild card. The Jets would be eliminated from the postseason with a loss and victories by Buffalo and Denver.

The Rams (7-8) are also fighting to maintain their postseason hopes. With a victory and help, St. Louis may not only clinch a playoff berth but could also win the National Football Conference West.

Regardless of the outcome of today's game, Vilma's first season at middle linebacker has been a rousing success.

He has already shown that he has the ability to become the cornerstone of the defense.

More than perhaps any Jets player, he personifies the team's ambitious -- and largely successful -- transition from a group of aging veterans to a corps of rising young players.

When the Jets decided to part ways with players like quarterback Vinny Testaverde and linebackers Mo Lewis and Marvin Jones after last season, they did so knowing that they were taking a considerable risk by entrusting the team to mostly unproven players.

But the gamble has paid off with 10 victories this season.

This season, 39 of the 56 players on the Jets' roster -- including the team's specialists and players on injured reserve -- have five or fewer years of N.F.L. experience. No one on the roster was born before 1970. And with Vilma's emergence as a starter, the average age of the first-team linebackers has fallen from about 30 on opening day of the 2003 season to about 24.

Despite Vilma's youth -- only two other Jets are younger -- Coach Herman Edwards said that after more than 25 years in the N.F.L. as a player, coach and scout, he was not sure he had seen a rookie as prepared to play as a professional.

''He's never hit a lull, I don't think,'' Edwards said. ''He's been pretty much consistent all the way through. I think, obviously, his athletic ability is something that when we drafted him, we knew he'd bring that to the table.

''I just think his consistency and how he got better as the season went along, he's been a very, very solid performer for us, and he's going to get better as time goes on.''

Since entering the lineup as a replacement for Sam Cowart in the second game, he has impressed coaches and teammates as much with his intellect as with his playmaking ability and speed.

''You don't expect him to know certain blocks, you don't expect him to know how to drop back so he can get a pick, you don't expect him to know all those little things,'' said Jason Ferguson, an eight-year veteran defensive tackle who is the most experienced member of the Jets' front seven.

''He's a natural,'' Ferguson said. ''He's a natural leader on the team. A natural middle linebacker.''

Not that this season has been without its adjustments. The toughest one? Losing.

In four months as a professional, Vilma has lost more games than he did in four years at Miami, where the Hurricanes went 46-4 during his years there from 2000-3.

''That's the hardest part,'' Vilma said. ''People said the season's long and all that, that doesn't matter much to me.

''It's the losing part that really just bothers me.''

Vilma has sought advice from former Miami teammates in the N.F.L., like Baltimore's Ed Reed and Denver's D.J. Williams.

''Last year, we lost two games,'' Vilma said, referring to his senior season at Miami. ''That was a lot for me. I called Ed Reed. I asked him how do you deal with that. I had never dealt with that.''

Sitting by his locker, Vilma shook his head as if to say that he didn't want to get a lot of practice doing so.

Photo: Even veteran players are looking to the rookie linebacker Jonathan Vilma for on-field leadership. (Photo by Joe Rogate)(pg. 9)